Teen faces life in prison for hash brownies

AUSTIN, Texas (CNN) – A Texas teen is facing serious prison time for hash brownies. Marijuana is legal in some parts of the country but in others, pot laced baked goods could land you in jail for the rest of your life.

In this case, the issue is the brownies were made with hash oil, which is considered much more serious than marijuana in Texas. 19 year old Jacob Lavoro is facing the same prison sentence as some rapists and murderers in the state of texas, up to 99 years behind bars.

His alledged offense? Baking brownies with hash oil.

“Honestly when i heard that i was going to get life in jail, my face turned white and i had to throw up.” said Lavoro.

But local Texas police say Lavoro made a business out of pot brownies, selling them for 25 bucks a pop. Court documents indicate police found several bags of marijuana and ash oil in separate containers in his house. Enough to bring another felony charge against Lavoro, but because of a controversial law, it’s those hash brownies could lead to big jail time.

According to CNN legal analyst Paul Callan “It really was meant to cover a situation where you were mixing a small amount of cocaine or heroin with white flour and it was difficult to weight it because it was all mixed together.”

In this case, police weighed all the ingredients in the pot brownies, not just the hash oil. They included the sugar and butter and milk and eggs and flour and chocolate too. 661 grams total, but Lavoro’s attorney says the actual drugs made up a small fraction of that.

Lavoro’s attorney, Jack Holmes, told CNN “Probably about five grams of actual controlled substance, which in this case is THC, and the rest is baked goods.”

But police did exactly what Texas state law allows them to do because there is no way to weigh the two separately. Legal analyst Callan says it makes no sense.

“I don’t think the law was ever intended to cover a situation like this where you’re making marijuana brownies. You know, if it did, the Texas legislature must have been eating those brownies when they wrote the law.”

The district attorney’s office tells CNN it will offer a plea bargain to Lavoro that wouldn’t include any jail time. Even if Lavoro agrees to it, he’s already spent a month in jail before being released on 30 thousand dollars bond.

“It was real scary. I was in there with real criminals. They laughed at me.”

Lavoro said he is definitely out of the pot brownie baking business. His attorney says they want to wait until they get lab results back before entertaining any plea deal.